


Soulmates

by winnyz



Category: Naruto
Genre: ShikaTema
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-29
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22011487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winnyz/pseuds/winnyz
Summary: Shikamaru ponders on the significance of Soulmates...
Relationships: Nara Shikamaru/Temari
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HerPrettySmile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerPrettySmile/gifts).



> This one was done for the Secret Santa event on the ShikaTemaShrine Server on Discord.  
> Gift for Rei (herprettysmile)  
> Hope you like it!

It wasn’t as if he didn’t believe in “Soulmates.” They’ve been taught about the subject ever since they were little kids, constantly hearing the adults talking about how they’ve found who their soulmate was, and some of them, complaining on having gotten the wrong person and how they fight against it. The ranting always ended up in nothing, your soulmate was written on your skin, you can’t see it until you find that person, and until you realize they are the one for you. So why waste energy on a battle that you can never win?

It was just that the idea of having someone set up for you, even before you were born, didn’t sit well with him. What if he found someone different later on? What if he hated the person that was destined to be with him? And if that person turned out to be an old man? There had been cases. The possibilities of this going wrong were endless. He himself had seen close friends suffering because of this, although, he was pretty sure Ino was not “in love” with the Uchiha boy, it was probably just a teen infatuation that lasted longer than it should have, she did find the love of her life in her soulmate and she was genuinely happy.

And what if, completely against the currents, you never find your soulmate? Have that happened before? According to the old ladies at the market, who tried to scare small girls about never finding their soulmates if there were bad, it happened from time to time. But that didn’t necessarily mean something bad, people who were perfectly fine on their own, without needing someone to be there to feel complete. Maybe he was one of those, he hoped he was, it was the least troublesome option of the bunch.

And all of that, not even considering how people say that when they realize who their partner is, after they know for sure, it hurts… it burned as hell, their fingerprints burned into your skin. At least it only needed to happen once, there had to be something positive about it. But then again, soulmates didn’t necessarily “find each other” at the same time. Yes, they can grow up together, and know each other for a while, without necessarily knowing they were destined to be with each other. And that was the worst part for him.  
How would he feel if he ended up getting the marks from someone who is not even realizing he is the one for them? How can you live knowing that your soulmate has no idea that you are “the one”, or they keep on with their lives looking for their other half? And what if that person knew it was him, but would rather run far from him? This whole ordeal was such a drag.

*** 

Why was he even thinking about all of this? He should be resting, not only his body but his mind, he was needed on the battlefield. This war was taking a toll on all of them, they will never be the same people as before. Getting up as lazily as he could, at least on that he can still be lazy, he walked out of the medical tent and back into the main camp. As soon as he entered the room, his eyes laid on her.  
She looked paler than the last time he saw her about 4 days ago. Did something happen? Now that he pays more attention, her arms were wrapped in bandages, more than she was wearing lately. She was spacing out, eyes fixed on the wall, seemingly just hearing her siblings going over the latest enemy move.

He cleared his throat to officially announce his presence in the room, even though he was sure they already knew he was there, and hoover over their strategy table, jumping onto the discussion with the rest of the allies. Sometimes he felt like this was a fruitless battle, an already lost one as all of their efforts always ended up with death and territory loss.  
But they could not give up. How could they? With all that was as risk, the villages, their families and friends, their loved ones. They have to fight until their last breath.  
A sudden movement interrupted his train of thought, and from the corner of his eye he saw Temari getting up. He turned to face her and she just give him a quick nod and turned her face, avoiding him as she had been doing since pretty much day one of the war.  
He couldn’t understand women, especially not this one. He was completely sure that he hadn’t done anything to make her mad. He tried to talk to her about it once, but she just dismissed it, saying it was just stress from the battlefield. Which sounded ridiculous. If that was really true, she would be the last person to admit she was suffering from it. There was something off, and he could tell it was something related to him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.  
She avoided him as much as she could, and she’d just flinch when he came close to her, as if she was scared of him. He had the feeling she didn’t want him near. Just putting a hand on her shoulder to make her stop walking once had cause her to jump as high as the ceiling and him getting screamed at for at least five minutes. And she didn’t even scream that much these days. He had no idea what was going on.  
She walked past them and outside of the council room, mumbling something about getting some sleep to be ready for tomorrow. With that, she disappeared into the camp.

****

The attack caught them all by surprise, according to their intel, the enemy main forces should be stationed at least two hundred and fifty miles away from them. Moving all the way here without being detected, how the hell had they managed to do it?  
He was thrown out of his sleeping post, the screaming and explosion sounds sounding closer and closer by the second. People were running around, not knowing what do to. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They knew what to do on the battlefield, but not for an attack in their own trenches. As soon as he came out, he saw Gaara screaming orders at people, trying to organize them. It wasn’t going that well.  
Choji and Ino were fighting those clones and seemed to be managing OK, so he kept looking and saw Temari also screaming orders in sync with Gaara. He thought right now the best he could do was to help them get everyone organized. So, he started screaming for his teammates and gave them instructions; go and spread the orders, organize the ranks, have them fighting together instead of alone.

They were banding together, they were pushing them and lowering their numbers, they were going to make it. Ino and Choji came back along with the Hyugas, and right behind them was the rest of Team 8 and Team 7. They all moved forward, exterminating everything on their path....

With a sudden puff of smoke in the middle of the battlefield, the masked man had showed himself. Shikamaru engaged in battle without even thinking about it.  
Toby, or whatever his name was, was so fast he could barely see him. His shadows weren’t even close to catch him. He could feel how his chakra was wearing out but he had to trap him, so that someone could throw the final blow. The man was coming full front, and he just had to hold it for a couple of seconds so that she could make a hit. He had seen Temari coming from the side, fan at the ready. They glanced at each other and knew exactly what to do. He caught him at the very last second. If he hadn’t, he would’ve been killed by now. Temari came in strong, hitting the man with all of her strength.

They didn’t have time to react. The man was behind her in a blink of an eye, his hand coming out of her chest from her back and her mouth and eyes, open widely in shock of what was happening. The man was gone as soon as he came, and all of those clones were gone. She was falling forward. He had just enough energy to reach and extend his arms to catch her, still unable to grasp what was going on.  
She was hit. But, they got him?! What happened?!  
Her eyes were barely open, there was blood coming out of her mouth. He had to move, now! Otherwise she will die. He looked around and everyone was either dead, wounded or helping someone else, he tried to stand, converting all of his willpower into strength he managed to get on his knees and started screaming for help. He needed to move, God, he needed to take her to someone who could heal her.  
A small grunting noise caught his attention and he looked down, she was looking at him, bloodied face and the light from her eyes escaping quickly.  
“Don’t speak, don’t move, I’m getting you out of here, please stay calm,” as much as he wanted to be calm for her, he could hear his own voice trembling.  
There were more gurgling sounds and he looked at her, horrified seeing that she was drowning in her own blood. She pulled out a hand to reach out to him, and he met her halfway, taking her hand to his mouth, saying words only she could hear.  
She winced at his touch, as is something else was hurting, and as soon as he took her hand to his face, he felt it; the burning, her fingerprints were burning his skin and it hurt like hell itself, but it was gone as soon as it came. Gone like the life that has just left her.  
And that’s when he realized that his worst fear... became reality…


End file.
